Privacy Policy

Lichen Trail is a community mapping tool that lets neighbors share trails, points of interest, plant sightings, and bulletin posts. This policy describes what information we collect, how we use it, and the third parties involved in operating the service.

Account information. When you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, profile picture, and a unique Google account ID. We store these so you can sign back in and so other users can see who created a post or trail.

Content you create. Trails, routes, points of interest, plant sightings, annotations, bulletin posts, comments, and reactions you submit are stored in our database and visible to other signed-in users on the map.

Photos and media. Photos you upload are stored in our hosted storage and displayed alongside the content you attach them to. Photo files may include metadata such as capture timestamp and approximate GPS coordinates if your device included them.

Location. If you grant location permission in your browser, we use your current location to center the map and let you place pins or capture trails. We do not store your continuous location history. Coordinates are saved only when you explicitly save a trail, sighting, or point of interest.

Usage analytics. We use PostHog to record anonymized product analytics — page views, feature usage, and performance — so we can improve the app. PostHog assigns a session identifier and may receive your IP address; we do not knowingly send it personally identifying content.

• To authenticate you and keep you signed in.
• To display the content you create to other users of the application.
• To send you transactional notifications about your account or new bulletin posts when relevant.
• To monitor and improve the app, fix bugs, and prevent abuse.

We do not sell your data. We do not use your data for advertising.

We rely on these providers to deliver the service. Each handles your data under its own privacy policy:

• Google — sign-in (OAuth). You can revoke access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
• Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage backend.
• Vercel — application hosting and edge networking.
• PostHog — anonymized product analytics.
• MapLibre / OpenStreetMap, USGS, Open-Meteo, iNaturalist — read-only data sources for map tiles, elevation, weather, and plant identification. Browsing the map may cause requests to these services that include your IP address.

We use cookies and browser local storage to keep you signed in, remember UI preferences (such as the active map style), and cache map data for offline use. We do not use advertising cookies.

We keep your account and the content you create until you ask us to delete it. If you'd like your account or specific content removed, email us at the address below and we'll handle it within a reasonable time frame.

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data by emailing us. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws like the GDPR or CCPA — we honor those requests on the same path.

Lichen Trail is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the “Last updated” date above.

For privacy questions or data requests, email noahrwilson4@gmail.com.